Bruins go with Grizz

The Boston Bruins got down to the National Hockey League’s 23-man roster limit tonight, and Rob O’Gara was the unkindest cut.

The former Yale standout put in his AHL time at Providence last season and was locked in a battle of left shots with Matt Grzelcyk to see which one might replace recovering defenseman Torey Krug (broken jaw) on opening night against the Nashville Predators.

Grzelcyk has won an NHL job, at least for now. And the extra asterisk dangling from that is coach Bruce Cassidy’s recent comments acknowledging that final cuts could be determined based more on fit rather than reward.

The fact is several campers had strong showings for which there is no immediate reward, simply because of the 23-man NHL roster limit and Tuesday’s deadline to reach it.

Morning practice pairings had free-agent signee Paul Postma skating on his right side, a strong indicator this close to the opener that coach Bruce Cassidy is not planning on sliding him to the left side of the rink.

The four pairings were: Zdeno Chara with Brandon Carlo; Kevan Miller with Charlie McAvoy, Grzelcyk with Adam McQuaid; and O’Gara with Postma.

Krug, who practiced with the Bruins wearing a non-contact merlot-colored jersey, has not been ruled out of the opener, but General Manager Don Sweeney said his top puck-pusher and powerplay quarterback is due for another X-ray on Friday. At the time of his injury, the Bruins issued a statement saying Krug would be re-evaluated in three weeks, which would be Wednesday, Oct. 12, when the Bruins will be opening a three-game road trip in Denver.

Sweeney had options in this decision. He could have dressed O’Gara and redistributed powerplay ice time. He elected to keep Grzelcyk (pronounced GRIZZ-lick), who is more of a one-for-one exchange with Krug in terms of assets, style and role.

The rest of it was solved, temporarily, by placing Krug and Austin Czarnik on injured reserve – they can play when ready.

Grzelcyk, assuming he gets in the opening-night lineup ahead of the journeyman Postma, will certainly not approach Krug’s typical 21 minutes of ice time, but he would play in protected matchups and could quarterback a second powerplay unit.

Meantime, what’s the message for O’Gara, Danton Heinen, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Peter Cehlarik and others who felt this was their year?

“Well Tim Schaller went on waivers last year, was down for a day and spent the entire time up, and had a strong year. I think it’s a great example,” said Sweeney during Media Day festivities, hours before the final cuts had been announced.

Schaller was a free agent who had played in the Buffalo Sabres organization when he became one of the Bruins’ lesser-hyped offseason acquisitions.

Sweeney wants the Providence Bruins to think like Schaller. Had the former Providence College skater flatlined upon his return to the city where he attended college and played hockey, he would not have successfully seized the subsequent opportunities that led to a 59-game regular season and the one-way contract that followed this summer.

“It’s not worth pouting, you really have to get your feet on the ground,” said Sweeney. “Recognize where you are. Don’t get your head thinking, ‘Boston’s 45 minutes away’ because it might take a guy two years to get there – I’ve used that line before with players – or it might take you two days.”

Schaller wasn’t as young as most of Boston’s brighter prospects, even the ones who had been developing in the AHL. He was swimming in a sea of afterthoughts, and even in this camp nothing was taken for granted, especially with so many legitimate contenders for promotion in camp.

“Things just change very, very quickly at the National Hockey League level, and you want to be playing your best. And you want to be expanding your repertoire,” said Sweeney. “One of the questions that was asked was having guys understand that, you come off a top-six role on your previous team, it doesn’t mean that’s where you’re going to play. And can you play up and down the lineup and in different roles and having different responsibilities? Can you find yourself, carve yourself (out) a job in the National Hockey League?”

“It’s natural to go through a disappointment phase, but boy, don’t let it linger.”

Rink Rap The Podcast Episode 2 was recorded in part at training camp with an opportunity to talk with Ryan Spooner, the Bruin whose future was considered shaky at best until he showed up at this camp with 10 pounds of muscle he has resolved to use during puck battles. Here is the link to the podcast:

During the Media Day presser, Rink Rap asked Delaware North Boston Holdings CEO Charlie Jacobs about the construction going on at North Station and a timeline for the project. Here’s what he said:

“The timeline for completion is October ’18, so that’s generous and that may be a little aspirational, in terms of when you look at North Station and you see the cranes out front and it looks pretty barren. The truth of the matter is we’ve been in the ground for over a year and we’re over five stories deep and now, if you were to look at it, you’d see there’s floors installed for the new parking and the subterranean grocery store, so we’re hoping to be operational. When I say operational, that doesn’t mean we’re going to have finishes, but the ability to actually enter North Station from Causeway Street and not necessarily from Legends Way, by October ’18, and full completion a year after that. So when I say full completion, I’m meaning finishes, actual tenants inside, and operational businesses inside. North Station is undergoing a major transformation. Commuters are experiencing it. Our event-goers are experiencing it. It is going to be an inconvenience, but it’s a temporary one and ultimately a much better event experience for event-goers and commuters alike. ”

It seems that every time there is a tragic loss of lives at the hands of a terrorist like this week in Las Vegas, our entertainment venues beef up security for a time, then things calm down and become more expedient until the next tragedy. So I asked Charlie Jacobs if he envisions a time when security procedures at TD Garden events are going to have to permanently change. Here’s what he said:

“We’ve never taken security lightly. We constantly evaluate and then re-evaluate our security protocols. Both the NBA and the National Hockey League have a set of standards that we abide by and then frankly we go a step further. It really frankly isn’t about security within TD Garden. It’s more about the periphery, as you saw with the issues in Manchester and how you can handle your marshaling areas for both egress and exits. We continually look at this. It’s not something that is ever written in stone, it’s a very fluid process from date to date and from concert to concert, but of course, our goal is to make sure our patrons are as safe as possible, and they should feel safe, and we invested a significant amount of time and resources in making sure that door to door, their experience is an entertaining one, and most importantly, a safe one.”

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Mick Colageo

Mick Colageo grew up in East Walpole, Mass., skating on Coburn's Pond and at 4 Seasons Arena. He has been writing about hockey since 1986 and covering the Bruins since 1991, is a voting member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, and ... Read Full